The present invention relates to an apparatus for sorting sheets or the like, which reads address codes, e.g., bar codes, applied to the sheets or the like, such as mail, and distributes the introduced sheets or the like in accordance with the address codes. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus for sorting sheets or the like which enables carrier route sequencing of mail, i.e., sequencing the volume of mail by carrier routes in accordance with address codes.
A conventional apparatus for reading address codes applied to sheets or the like such as mail and sequencing the incoming sheets or the like in the order indicated by the address codes is, for example, a carrier route sequencing system for sheets or the like which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 63-287584.
In this conventional system, addresses of delivery points of sheets or the like are inputted, and the sheets or the like are sorted into portions corresponding to delivery zones in accordance with the inputted addresses. During this operation, the addresses and the number of fed sheets or the like for each of the delivery zones are stored in a storage unit. Then, the stored addresses are sequenced into the carrier route order and stored again. Next, each of the portions of the sheets or the like sorted in accordance with the delivery zones are taken out of a stacker device and supplied to a feeder device again. After that, the addresses are read again and checked with the addresses in the carrier route order stored in the storage unit, thus sorting the sheets or the like in accordance with the carrier route order.
In the above-described conventional technology, sheets or the like such as mail sorted and received in sections of the stacker device must be taken out and returned to the feeder so as to perform carrier route sequencing. For this purpose, there are employed a recycle for shifting the sorted sheets or the like from the stacker to the feeder device. In this case, in order to supply the sorted mail in the stacker to the feeder again, the mail taken out of the stacker must be transferred about 3 to 6 m from the stacker to the feeder.
However, supposing the number of mail per deliverer is about 1000, the weight of the mail is totally about 10 kg, and consequently, for example, it is necessary to prepare trays for containing the mail in the vicinity of the stacker, to introduce the sorted mail into the trays carefully without changing the order of the mail, to carry the trays to the vicinity of the feeder device and to supply the mail to the feeder device successively in order. Such operations require much labor and time and involve a problem that if an error occurs in the order of the mail when moving the mail into or out of the trays, correct carrier route sequencing can not be carried out.